Ja'far al-Sadiq

Ja'far al-Sadiq

Ja'far al-Sadiq, or Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq (Arabic: جعفر ابن محمد الصادق; c. 702–765), was a scholar, jurist and hadith transmitter descended from Ali, and the sixth and last Shia imam agreed upon between the Twelvers (Ithna Ashariyya) and the Isma'ilis. Known by the title "al-Sadiq" ("the Truthful"), Ja'far al-Sadiq is known as the founder of the Ja'fari school of Islamic law. In the accepted hadith collections of the Twelvers, there are more hadiths transmitted from him than from all the other imams combined. However, the attribution of these transmissions to him is disputed, and this makes it difficult to determine his actual teachings. Among the religious doctrines attributed to him are, besides the doctrines of nass (the designation of each imam by the previous imam through divine inspiration) and isma (the infallibility of the imams), the doctrine of taqiyya (concealing one's religion under persecution).

Ja'far al-Sadiq is also respected by Sunni Muslims as a reliable hadith transmitter. He was moreover the teacher of Abu Hanifa and Malik ibn Anas, the founders of the Hanafi and Maliki schools. Ja'far al-Sadiq also explicitly appears in the chains (silsila) of many Sufi orders. A wide variety of religious and scientific works have been attributed to him, but none of the works he wrote have survived to the present day.

Life

He was born in Medina in the year 699 or 702. His father was Muhammad al-Baqir, son of Zayn al-Abidin, the grandson of Ali; his mother was Umm Farwa, daughter of Qasim ibn Muhammad, the grandson of Abu Bakr. His kunya was Abu Isma'il because his eldest son was Isma'il, but because that son died before him he was more often referred to as Abu Abdullah. Although his most famous epithet is al-Sadiq, he was also mentioned by the epithets al-Tahir, al-Sabir, al-Atir and al-Fadil. He received his first education from his grandfather Zayn al-Abidin and his father. According to the Shia, after his father's death he carried on the office of the imamate for 34 years.

His importance in Shiism

In Shiism, "Ja'far al-Sadiq," the sixth of the Twelve Imams, was also the father of Isma'il ibn Ja'far al-Mubarak and Musa al-Kazim. According to Shia teaching, Ja'far al-Sadiq's greatest quality was that he was a complete guiding teacher.

His death

According to Shia teaching, he was killed by poisoning on 8 December 765 by order of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur. He lies in the famous Baqi cemetery in Medina. There is also a shrine dedicated to him in the Wadi al-Salam cemetery in the city of Najaf in Iraq, which is considered holy by the Shia.

Sources

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